Sports Betting Identified As Significant Factor In Television Ratings

Who could have ever guessed?

Survey shows betting on sports is closely tied to television ratings for sporting events.

In a piece of news that is sure to shock you, it appears that sports betting has a significant impact on television ratings for sporting events. Go figure.

Researchers are only now starting to grasp what it seems most sports bettors have known for some time in that legalized sports betting is a significant factor in boosting live television numbers. After all, anybody that has ever risked a large amount of money on a specific sporting event probably ended up watching it play out.

According to a study conducted by Variety Magazine and the data research firm Proedge, there is a clear link between legal sports betting wagering stakes and the viewership of those games on television. The survey polled 175 active gamblers living in states where sports betting is legal, 175 more people in states where sports betting is legal that were interested in sports betting but weren’t actually active bettors and 152 punters that were classified as active or interested in states where sports betting is actually not yet legal.

The study, which was conducted back in May, also concluded that bettors had a heavy interest in wagering on marquee events including the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals and the World Series. The discovery is something that sports cable television networks probably already had a good idea about. After all, those networks have pumped billions of dollars in to television rights over the decades.

It will be very interesting to see how states where sports betting is still illegal react to the news. There has been a substantial push for legalized sports betting across the United States, so it seems like only a matter of time before more states jump in to the action in order to help boost both tax revenues on gaming and television ratings among viewers in those areas. It’s just somewhat comical that it took so long for people to realize.